It pays to be on DC Comics mailing list. Today in the mail I received the new hardcover edition of Watchmen. This is really a landmark in literature. Along with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman's Maus, Watchmen forced evolution on the entire medium. Sequential storytelling was no longer kids stuff. It was literature. Although the story takes place in the 80s and deals with a lot of cold war issues it has remained pretty timeless. I'm often asked "what graphic novel would recommend to someone who doesn't read comics?" My answer is always "Watchmen". This is the dark, seething underbelly of the human condition dealt to the reader with enough pathos and gravitas to make them forget they are reading about superheroes. This stuff too mean and cynical for you? There's always Archie. Or John Grisham. Trust me. This is every bit as dense and complex as Russian literature.
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